Cardiac MR 
image processing

I am currently developing image processing and visualisation tools to improve cardiac MR including: cardiac diffusion tensor imaging, cardiomyocyte tractography, deep learning and multi-modality image registration.

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Things I am working on

Cardiac MR: diffusion tensor imaging

Cardiac diffusion analysis tool

I've developed a MATLAB image processing and analysis software tool for cardiac DTI. It outputs multiple DTI maps including: fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, tensor mode,  helix angle and secondary eigenvector orientation in relation to the local cardiac coordinates. It includes an automatic left ventricle segmentation aided by a convolutional neural network. It is used routinely by clinicians in our department.

Left ventricle automatic segmentation

Automatic image classification and left ventricular myocardial segmentation with convolutional neural networks. The fully automated cardiac DTI analysis with deep learning performed effectively with high levels of accuracy when compared to an experienced user. Of note, the myocardial segmentation learned to correctly exclude papillary and right ventricular trabeculation from the LV myocardium, even in patient data with a more varied morphology.

Myocyte tractography

Left ventricular tractograms of healthy human heart. The tracts are colour coded according to the local helix angle and shown for different depths of the myocardial wall. This data was acquired in vivo.

Diffusion tensor visualisation

Visualisation of the entire diffusion tensor with superquadric glyphs. This particular set of images show an horizontal long-axis plane of the heart, viewed from different angles. This data was acquired in vivo.

Histology image processing

Developed MATLAB and Python tools to automatically find and measure orientation of specific features in microscopy histology images of the heart muscle.

selected Publications

Complete publication list: scopus external link
Ferreira PF, Khalique Z, Scott AD, Yang G, Nielles-Vallespin S, Pennell DJ, et al. Towards automating cardiac DTI with a convolutional neural network. In: Proceedings International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Workshop Machine Learning II; 2018.Schlemper J, Yang G, Ferreira P, Scott A, McGill L, Khalique Z, Gorodezky M, Roehl M, Keegan J, Pennell D, Firmin DN, Rueckert D. Stochastic Deep Compressive Sensing for the Reconstruction of Diffusion Tensor Cardiac MRI. CoRR. 2018; abs/1805.12064.Ferreira PF, Nielles-Vallespin S, Scott AD, de Silva R, Kilner PJ, Ennis DB, Auger DA, Suever JD, Zhong X, Spottiswoode BS, Pennell DJ, Arai AE, Firmin DN. Evaluation of the impact of strain correction on the orientation of cardiac diffusion tensors with in vivo and ex vivo porcine hearts. Magn Reson Med. 2017: 2205-2215Nielles-Vallespin, S., Khalique, Z., Ferreira, P. F., et al. Assessment of Myocardial Microstructural Dynamics by In Vivo Diffusion Tensor Cardiac Magnetic Resonance. J Am Coll Cardiol (2017): 661-676.
Orloff Science Award.
Serbanovic-Canic, J., de Luca, A., Warboys, C., et al. Zebrafish Model for Functional Screening of Flow-Responsive Genes. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol (2017): 130-143.Scott, A. D., Nielles-Vallespin, S., Ferreira, P.F., et al. The effects of noise in cardiac diffusion tensor imaging and the benefits of averaging complex data. NMR Biomed (2016): 29.McGill, L.A., Ferreira, P.F., Scott, A. D., et al. Relationship between cardiac diffusion tensor imaging parameters and anthropometrics in healthy volunteers. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2015): 18.Ferreira, P. F., Kilner, P. J., McGill, L.A., et al. In vivo cardiovascular magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging shows evidence of abnormal myocardial laminar orientations and mobility in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2014): 87.
2015 winner of the SCMR Gerald Pohost best manuscript award.
Scott, A. D., Ferreira, P. F. A. D. C., Nielles-Vallespin, S., et al. Optimal diffusion weighting for in vivo cardiac diffusion tensor imaging. Magn Reson Med (2014).Tunnicliffe, E. M., Scott, A. D., Ferreira, P., et al. Intercentre reproducibility of cardiac apparent diffusion coefficient and fractional anisotropy in healthy volunteers. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2014): 31.Ismail, T. F., Hsu, L.-Y., Greve, A. M., et al. Coronary microvascular ischemia in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - a pixel-wise quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance perfusion study. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2014): 49.Ferreira, P. F., Gatehouse, P. D., Mohiaddin, R. H., et al. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance artefacts. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2013): 41.McGill, L.-A., Ismail, T. F., Nielles-Vallespin, S., et al. Reproducibility of in-vivo diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2012): 86.Ferreira, P. F., Gatehouse, P. D., and Firmin, D. N. Myocardial first-pass perfusion imaging with hybrid-EPI: frequency-offsets and potential artefacts. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2012): 44.Nielles-Vallespin, S., Mekkaoui, C., Gatehouse, P., et al. In vivo diffusion tensor MRI of the human heart: reproducibility of breath-hold and navigator-based approaches. Magn Reson Med (2013): 454-65.Ferreira P, First-pass myocardial perfusion MRI: artifacts and advances. PhD thesis, 2010, Imperial College.Ferreira, P., Gatehouse, P., Kellman, P., et al. Variability of myocardial perfusion dark rim Gibbs artifacts due to sub-pixel shifts. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2009): 17.Ferreira, P., Gatehouse, P., Bucciarelli-Ducci, C., et al. Measurement of myocardial frequency offsets during first pass of a gadolinium-based contrast agent in perfusion studies. Magn Reson Med (2008): 860-70.Gerber, B. L., Raman, S. V., Nayak, K., et al. Myocardial first-pass perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance: history, theory, and current state of the art. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson (2008): 18.

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